For those of you interested in a training program in Mindfulness, Sounds True online course in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction(MBSR) takes you through an 8 week program taught by the Center for Mindfulness director Dr. Saki Santorelli and senior instructor Florence Meleo-Meyer.

I had the pleasure of going through the MBSR at Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine several years ago with Karen Sothers. What a great opportunity Sounds True offers. Going through the program with Saki and Florence gives you two teachers who are truly the teachers of teachers having instructed so many MBSR trainers over the years.

More than 16 hours of video instruction on mindfulness meditation, stretching, mindful yoga, and guidance for enhancing awareness in everyday life

Four hours of guided mindfulness practice on audio

Elements from the in-person MBSR course workbook available in PDF format

Online journal to record and reflect about your experiences

Completion graph to track your progress through the course

Two annual live sessions—A Day in Mindfulness

Continuing practice emails—once a week for four weeks after you complete the course

All participants will also receive two free gifts:

Discount of $50 off a purchase of $95 or more of selected mindfulness-based learning resources from Sounds True

Free audio practice on kindness, presented by Florence Meleo-Meyer

All materials in this course will be yours to keep—you can return to any previous session at any time to refresh your experience.

A Training with Benefits that Last a Lifetime

Since its inception, tens of thousands of people have completed the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program and learned how to use their innate resources and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and illness. The MBSR Online Course brings you the complete intensive training in mindfulness meditation and its integration into the challenges and adventures of everyday life.

Tami Simon, the Founder of Sounds True, has shared a free, 3 part series. It is a lead up to a new, seven-week Mindfulness Training program being introduced with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach: The Power of Awareness.

In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind Shunryu Suzuki talk about right posture and the importance of right posture. When driving a car, sitting in a chair or while doing anything, right posture keeps one aware and awake. Notice Jack and Tara.

A gift from Krzysztof Gonciarz & Kasia Mecinski and their Tofu Media Productions. They recently spent some time with an American former Marine, Scott Mangis, who became a Zen monk in Japan. The response to there video echoes a common theme of listening to the heart. You may reflect on your own path as you listen to the narrative and insights on one man’s journey.

If a picture is worth a thousand words. An emotion is worth 10,000 pictures. This occurs when we listen with our hearts.

Albert Einstein reminded us: Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

I found it interesting that this ad was by a life insurance company. What really does insure a life well lived? A good life? How does one change the values and beliefs that one has grown up with. Values and beliefs being like the water a fish lives in? Or the ocean of air we live in?

People are not born with any values or beliefs. Our values and beliefs infiltrate the most basic parts of our being from those around us. They are like contagious diseases, spread by those whoa re had by them to newcomers to the group.

There is no necessary correlation between what people say and what they do. There is a close correlation between what people value and believe and what they accomplish.

Values and beliefs are the software that energies, guides, channels, filters, an screens all of our attention and all of our actions. What we value and what we believe not only defines who we are, but how things will turn out for us in the end.

Some provocations along those lines:

If you don’t value accomplishment over activity, your life will be more or less a random sequence of activities.

If you don’t get the software right, the hardware isn’t going to make much difference one way or the other.

What you don’t understand of your owns values and beliefs will make you more a victim of them. The ones you haven’t consciously chosen will penetrate you from outside sources.

What you don’t understand of the values and beliefs of others–whether enemies, competitors, friends, or partners–will leave you naked and vulnerable on the playing field.

Values and beliefs are not what make the world go round. They are the world around which everything else revolves

Lee Thayer: Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing p.303-304

This is where I find myself returning to the Kalama Sutra• Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it,
• Nor traditions because they are old and have been handed down from generation to generation and in many locations,
• Nor in rumor because it has been spoken by many,
• Nor in writings by sages because sages wrote them,
• Nor in one’s own fancies, thinking that it is such an extraordinary thought, it must have been inspired by a god or higher power,
• Nor in inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption made by us,
• Nor in what seems to be of necessity by analogy,
• Nor in anything merely because it is based on the authority of our teachers, masters, and elders,.

However, after thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.

These words, the Buddha went on to say, must be applied to his own teachings.

My friend Delos “Toby” Cosgrove is a fellow blogger for LinkedIn. He and his wonderful organization, the Cleveland Clinic, deserve a massive shout-out for their recent video entitled “Empathy.” I challenge you to watch it without a few tears forming.

Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task. When communicated as it is in this video, empathy can be truly inspirational. What the Cleveland Clinic movie reveals is the true scale and complexity of the challenge of understanding a complex social situation in order to design a system that supports many and various needs.

Think of this movie as a design brief. How would you design a hospital or health care system that helps and supports each of the people and their circumstances that you see here? How would you change the space, the roles that staff play, the type and manner in which patients receive information, the support systems around patients and staff?

The following blog was written by a dear friend, Tom Stacey of TheWordsmith.com. I worked for a number of years with Tom for 4 years at Vistage. A man of many talents attested to by wide and varied background:

WHY MINDFULNESS MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER
by Tom Stacey
No wonder you’re distracted:

In the last second, 6,000 new tweets went up.
In the last minute, 100 hours of new video were posted on YouTube.
In the last year, 292,000 new books were published, just in the U.S.

That’s the tip of the iceberg. The crazy thing? Almost none of this content matters to you or me. Yet the rivers of distraction are always raging, beckoning us to wade into our Facebook or LinkedIn news stream, into the depths of Netflix or Amazon Prime, into every targeted, branded long-tail torrent of data and blather that’s now at our fingertips.

In this ocean of noise, what does matter? How do you avoid wasting minutes, hours, your time — the coin of your life — on so much stuff that’s in your face, yet has no value to you? You already know: The answer is not out there, it’s within.

Recently I decided to try an iPhone app called Headspace, through which an Englishman named Andy guides you through a daily meditation designed to increase your mindfulness.

Can ‘mindfulness’ really help you maintain your focus?

I had a time-efficient way to test Headspace. Since starting a new job I’ve been riding the San Diego Coaster, which zooms above the spectacular beaches of Encinitas and Del Mar, and along Interstate 5. Now that I’m not white-knuckling my way up and down the freeway every day, I’ve been taking advantage of that 40-minute commute. I read, listen to podcasts, and lately, instead of falling straight into the always-on global data stream, I’ve been turning on Headspace and letting Andy guide my breathing and thoughts.

So, what happens when you close your eyes and focus your attention inward while you’re hurtling down the coastline in a train at 90 miles an hour? First, you notice every creak, squeak, screech and groan. Every jiggle, jostle and rumble registers. You realize what a noisy, bumpy ride this is. But when you keep returning your focus to your breath, those noises and sensations gradually recede, to an outer layer of your awareness.

There’s value in just this — realizing that you can control your focus. You discover that you can live with the annoying squeak, you can actually put it completely out of your mind. As you can with every other thought or sensation. Once you experience this, it’s not a big leap to grasp how easily we allow ourselves to become distracted. Hooked. Preoccupied. Triggered. Obsessed. Addicted.

Yes, the entire spectrum of Things That Keep You From What Really Matters. Which begs the question: What does really matter? That’s up to you of course, but you can’t decide that until you allow yourself to be in the moment, untethered from the past, unbound by the future.

None of this is new if you’re into mindful meditation. You know that being in the moment might mean feeling scared or anxious or nervous or pissed. But when you’re mindful, you recognize those as passing states.

You don’t have to bury the anxious thought in a place where it will eventually come back as a monster that ties you in knots. Nor do you have to gloom on to outrage, judgment or any of the other unwanted states you might have found yourself inhabiting in the past. You can decide that those places are not where you want to live.

As for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and all the other places where we compulsively hunt for the latest: Now you see the hooks. People have gotten very good at baiting those hooks. As Pema Chodron says, you don’t have to bite.

Easier said than done, right? The start is being more aware of your awareness. It’s working for me — how about you?

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas of Tolentine. Fifty-five years ago on this day I along with 43 other novices of the Fratrum Ordinis Eremitarum Sancti Augustini (Augustinians). As Brothers of the Order of Hermits of St Augustine we professed our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. I realize that it is all the small things in my life that bring me to this present moment. Those memories of a yesterday in a yesteryear seem so far away. Yet so close in my mind’s eye. The beginning of 9 years of spiritual training and development so long at the time and from the perspective of time just a moment, an eighth or 12.5% of my life.

The Preface of the Rule of St. Augustine written in 400 A.D. read every Friday during a silent lunch helped remind me: Before all else, beloved, love God and then your neighbor, for these are the chief commandments given to us.

It is with gratitude and appreciation for the lessons learned that I received by living in community.

It was in all the small things along the way. In the early years the schedule of monastic life was taken as a chore. Only years later did I recognize the schedule was about a practice not imposed as was the feeling during formation but a practice chosen. A practice that frees one and allows for doing what needs to be done in order to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

In Lee Thayer’s newest book Mental Hygiene he touches on be addicted to habits that lead to good mental hygiene and habits that lead to bad mental hygiene. That hygiene starts in how I think influences who I am and who I am impacts what I do and what I do creates my habits and then my habits create me. How I know if my habits of mental hygiene are good or bad is seen in their efficacy. I will know if the habits I’m addicted to are good or bad by the consequences of my practice. I go back to the Kalama Sutra

“After thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.”

Daily, I walk up the back stairs to enter my home. The habit is to get out my keys as I close the door to the back house and walk up the steps. Unlock the door and go in making sure the cats don’t sneak out. A few months ago I saw a piece of one of our potted plans had grown and a small flower had budded on the edge of the door mat. I noticed it because I saw I would step on it. I realized I had been walking past that plant for a year or more and never really noticed the small flowers the plant had put out. It was a moment for reflection of how many little things go unnoticed through out my day, oh yea of mindfulness.

Looking behind a pot the partially hid other pieces of the plant growth, I found one of the plants other flowers in full bloom.

Now as I walk up the steps I am reminded to be mindful of the small things. A please. A thank you. A smile. A word of appreciation or gratitude. Blinking my lights to allow another car to enter in front of me. Listening to what is being said with care.

There was a man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and so displeased with his own footsteps that he determined to get rid of both. The method he hit upon was to run away from them.

So he got up and ran. But every time he put his foot down there was another step, which his shadow kept up with him without the slightest difficulty.

He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough. So he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until he finally dropped dead.

He failed to realize that if he merely stepped into the shade, his shadow would vanish, and if he sat down and stayed still, there would be no more footsteps. [xxxi.]

It is so easy to get caught or caught up in our doing. It helps me to remember there is always a place in the shade where my shadow disappears. There is also a spot where I can sit and my foot steps are silenced.

It’s only a matter of observing my breath and putting a smile on my face and I am back in the gift of life, the present.

The practice of mindful running begins with being a good animal and a mindful athlete. The good animal runs playfully. The mindful athlete observes what is humanly possible and participates fully in life: balance, flexibility, agility, awareness, clarity, stamina and fortitude.

Last Monday I went to the Ken Theater to see the movie: Alive Inside. In communication, the seemingly inert brain comes alive. To me it is an example of where the mind is not synonymous with the brain. The brain is a secondary organ like heart, liver, lungs. Often mind and brain are seen as the same.

The healthy mind cannot be reduced to a healthy brain. The brain is a biological phenomenon. The mind is a social phenomenon. The brain is initially created by our genes. The mind is created by those who surround us from birth. The mind is born and evolves as a matter of social necessity. We function in the human world as we do not – because we have a brain, but because we have a mind.

In simple and complex ways, our mind is a social creation. it is something that is created in us by how others talk to us– verbally and nonverbally. it is in the meaning of what they say to us that our our mind is born, and originally nurtured.

Lee talks about our minds are created, maintained, or altered through communication. Our communities are created by people talking to each other. Those before us created our culture…and then our culture creates us.

So we see Henry how he comes alive once he is touched with what communicated with him from his past. What have we done by believing that our elders are lost in dementia, Alzheimer’s and DSM-V diagnosis. Have we forgotten that DSM stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. My mother, father, brother, sister, best friend, grandfather and grandmother are not abstractions. What have we done by the misunderstanding of statistical when applied to an individual?

Bruce West in his bookWhere Medicine Went Wrong talks about medicine choosing to use the Standard Error of The Mean rather than the Inverse Power-Curve. That choice and the Gaussian or bell-shaped curve is about about averages where individuality is replaced by the idea of “average value.”

Where Medicine Went Wrong explores how the idea of an average value has been misapplied to medical phenomena, distorted understanding and lead to flawed medical decisions. Through new insights into the science of complexity, traditional physiology is replaced with fractal physiology, in which variability is more indicative of health than is an average. The capricious nature of physiological systems is made conceptually manageable by smoothing over fluctuations and thinking in terms of averages. But these variations in such aspects as heart rate, breathing and walking are much more susceptible to the early influence of disease than are averages. It may be useful to quote from the late Stephen Jay Gould s book Full House on the errant nature of averages: … our culture encodes a strong bias either to neglect or ignore variation. We tend to focus instead on measures of central tendency, and as a result we make some terrible mistakes, often with considerable practical import. Dr West has quantified this observation and make it useful for the diagnosis of disease.

What are we learning about community? While we call ourselves social animals may forget that we are also herd and pack animals? We are one in our uniqueness. How do we honor the unique contribution each of us brings?

The Fifth Agreement says: Be skeptical but listen. It resonates with the skepticism of philosopher Schopenhauer who influenced many modern thinkers:
In his essay: “The Wisdom of Life” he reminds us:

“With health, every;thing is a source of pleasure;
without it, nothing else, whatever it mat be, is enjoyable. . .
Health is by far the most important element in human happiness

Buddha says it another way in the Kalama Sutra. Basically he reminded the people of Kalama to be skeptical, even of his own teachings saying:

However, after thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.

When you get the opportunity watch Inside Alive. You may be able to affect changes in the way you communicate with your own loved ones. You may want to become part of founder Dan Cohen’s iPod ProjectRead More »

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About Me

My name is Ozzie Gontang. I am married. Kip’s an Aussie but Ozzie’s not. We have two daughters, Erin and Allison. They have indelibly imprinted on the back of their eyelids: If you want to know the future, create it. And they have and are. Both went to Berkeley in Cellular & Molecular Biology. Erin’s […]